Buddy Holly
by savvyliterate
Summary: Lorelai's birthday had been far, far easier when Luke had been nothing more than her coffee provider. But they were married now. As his daughters had informed him, it was time to step up his game.


**Author's note:** Happy birthday to Lorelai! This serves a dual purpose, as it fulfilled a Tumblr request for a post-AYITL Lorelai birthday gift and it's also for Meags09's birthday ficathon.

* * *

 _"Buddy Holly"_

"So … how about the world's largest cake made of Mallomars?"

"That's disgusting."

"Mom would love it."

"I'm not giving your mom a cake made of Mallomars."

"Fine, I'll give her the cake made of Mallomars."

Rory slowly peeled the wrapper back from a Mallomar as she kicked her feet up onto a pile of pillows stacked on the end of the bed. She daintily took a bite as she consulted the legal pad balanced on her swelling abdomen. A long list of possible birthday gift ideas was scribbled out, most of them impossible to pull off. She swallowed her bite of Mallomar, studied the dessert, then gingerly set it aside, her face slightly pale. "Great. Just great."

"What?" Luke looked up from where he sat at his old table, paperwork for his taxes spread everywhere and Lorelai's laptop open on his right. There was only so much the accountant could do for him, and Rory told him that she could use the company as he got everything ready to submit for the previous tax year. He'd been forced to file an extension because they were still figuring out how Richard's bequest affected his taxes, even though it had been signed over to Lorelai for the Dragonfly expansion.

It was also a good chance to talk over Lorelai's birthday with Rory, who had moved into his old apartment not long after Christmas. Part of the space had turned into a construction zone. He was working in his spare time on turning the old space April and Jess had once utilized into a full room for the baby.

"My kid hates Mallomars." Rory looked like the world was about to end. "How can my kid be a Gilmore if they hate Mallomars? No, instead, my kid loves fruit. And celery. My kid craves celery all the time. Must be picking it up from you by osmosis."

"Glad to know someone in this family listens to me," Luke muttered and stared blindly at an Excel sheet. The words were beginning to blur, and he wasn't sure if it was because he was tired of number-crunching or if he needed reading glasses. He really, really hoped it was the former and was nearly resigned to the latter.

"Well, that won't stop me from giving Mom the world's largest cake made of Mallomars," Rory said gamely. She tipped her partially-eaten Mallomar into the trash can next to the nightstand.

"Is that really a record to begin with?"

Rory consulted the tablet lying on the bed next to her. "No. But we can make it one." She tapped in a few words, then swiped through a couple of pages. "Oh damn it."

"What?"

"The world's largest cup of coffee is 3,758 gallons. We'll never be able to recreate that. Granted, that was my idea for Mom's 50th, so we have another year to go. We could give it a shot. You might be able to brew enough coffee by then."

"That's sick, and no." Luke switched back to pencil and paper to do more calculations by hand.

"Taylor would hate it." Rory smirked as Luke's pencil stopped, hovering just above his notepad for a few seconds before he began scribbling numbers down again. "Hah! You almost considered it!"

"What's wrong with a nice dinner somewhere?"

"You have no imagination."

"I don't want to see my wife in a diabetic coma before our first anniversary."

Rory rolled her eyes and set the tablet aside. "You two have been married for the past 10 years. You only just made it legal six months ago, so don't even pull that one."

Luke closed the laptop, quite thoroughly done for the day. "You doing OK? Need anything?"

"Yeah, just finishing my book revisions while the kid decides my stomach is a football field." Rory swung her feet off the bed, pushing to her feet. She waddled over and gave him an affection pat on the shoulder. "Go, be fretful somewhere else. I think I see a new gray hair."

"Not funny."

Rory just smirked.

* * *

"Any luck yet?" April asked over FaceTime the next day as Luke washed dishes at the Crap Shack. Lorelai had been held up at the Dragonfly, giving him a chance to fix a decent meal before she could breeze in and suggest takeout.

"No, and don't even mention the Guinness Book of World Records."

"Oh." April's face fell. "Right, so backup plans. You could take her on a tour of this Cold War-era submarine where they were conducting all sorts of scientific experiments, or you can go see the Dead Sea Scrolls. That's in Philadelphia. Oh, you could go take her to see exhibits from Antartica! There's penguins. There's also a really cool exhibit by these kinetic artists, including one that has this conceptual lung that-"

Luke stopped scrubbing a pot, staring at the phone he had securely propped above the sink. "April."

April's spiel continued for another ten seconds before his voice finally registered. "Dad?"

"Those are all things _you_ want to do."

"They are not." Luke winged an eyebrow at her, and she huffed. "Fine, they are, but you're the one who insists we need to all spend more time together as a family. We can spend time together and do science!"

"Nice try, but I think the whole point of Lorelai's birthday is to do stuff that she wants to do. Your birthday was last week."

April grinned. "Yes, and let me show you how I modded the new tablet you gave me."

His brilliant kid. He still wasn't sure where she came from. "Geez."

"Oh! We can get Jess to do impressions of you! Lorelai would love that!"

"Why am I the butt of all your jokes?"

"Because we love you, Dad." April gave a little shrug, her mouth quirking with a grin. "Just saying."

"You'll be here on Tuesday?"

April rolled her eyes. "Yes, you know Lorelai's like another mom to me."

"Just making sure."

"You're such a mom yourself," she teased.

Luke snagged the phone off the stand. "I'm hanging up now."

"Love you, Dad."

"Love you too."

* * *

Well. Well, crap. Luke stood in the storeroom of the diner on the morning of Lorelai's birthday, trying not to panic.

Lorelai's birthday had been far, far easier when he'd been nothing more than her coffee provider. Five hours of whatever work she wanted on the Crap Shack, which usually turned into five days. Easy-peasy. But he'd been forced to abandon that gift once he moved in, because he constantly worked on the house anyhow. It was a battle of wills now, keeping one step ahead of whatever broke in that place next.

He had muddled through the previous nine years, usually with a lot of help from Rory and April. Dinner combined with some sort of kitschy gift that Lorelai loved, though she pleaded with him after 2013 to stop giving her unicorns. But they were married now. As his daughters had informed him, it was time to step up his game. Except there was no game to step up, and now he had no gift, and he could see his life flashing before his eyes.

Luke grabbed the trash and walked out the back door with it, tossing it in the dumpster before turning at the sound of a little mew. He looked down at the tiny ball of black and white fluff that was rubbing itself all over his work boot.

"Oh, it's you again. Still haven't found your mom, huh?"

He scooped up the kitten. The little scrap had to be at least eight weeks old and was old enough to eat the kitten food he had left outside when he discovered it a couple days earlier on the back doorstep of the diner. He had been hesitant to take it in or call animal control, hoping the mom was around looking for the lost kitten, but he suspected she was no longer alive.

"Surprised you've managed to outwit Taylor for the past couple of days. He'd scoop you up and turn you over to the authorities." He stroked the kitten until it began to purr frantically, sounding like a tiny car engine. "No clue what I'm gonna do with you. Do you know what they do to abandoned animals in the shelter? People don't bother to fix their pets and look where it takes us, then they … nah, I won't scare you with that."

Luke scratched the kitten under its chin. Paul Anka had passed away two months earlier, living just past his 13th birthday. They had made overtures of getting another pet at some point, but the loss had devastated Lorelai. Even he had cried when he thought no one was looking.

He thought of what happened to pets that remained unadopted.

"We're not cat people," he informed the kitten.

The kitten began gnawing on his finger.

* * *

Luke greeted Lorelai at the door with a lingering kiss and a long hug and a whispered promise to re-enact his first "present" he had given her much earlier than morning.

Her answering smile made him hopeful that maybe she wouldn't murder him. In fact, he was perfectly ready to pull her upstairs right at that second and get started on their personal celebration. But their daughters would be arriving for dinner soon, and Rory had hinted that a surprise was being planned for Lorelai at the dance studio under the guise of a town meeting.

"What's with you?" she asked as he moved about the kitchen, unable to stay still. He checked on dinner, checked his phone, and texted Rory and April at least three times each to see when they were going to be at the house. He paced around the living room, headed back to the kitchen, and finally started taking apart the coffeemaker just to put it back together again.

"Nothing."

"Ohhhhhhkay." Lorelai turned her head down the short hallway when she heard a small sound coming from the bedroom. "What's in Rory's room?"

Luke moved quickly, blocking the way. "Don't go in there."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes at him. "Why not?"

"Your birthday gift's in there."

Lorelai ducked under Luke's arm and had the door open before he could stop her. The kitten sat in the middle of the floor, full food and water bowls nearby. It stopped meowing as soon as it saw them and trotted over to rub itself all over Lorelai's foot.

"A cat?" Lorelai gaped at him. "You got me a kitten for my birthday?"

"I didn't get you a kitten. It … _he_ just found me." He had discovered the kitten's gender the hard way, sacrificing one of his flannel shirts in the process. "Look, I know we're not exactly cat people. If you don't want him, we can hold onto him until we find someone to take him in. I really don't want to turn him over to an animal shelter, because do you know what happens to pets that aren't adopted? Now we can't ask Kirk, he's been forbidden from ever owning another cat. Maybe Liz or Sookie or your mom or …"

"Don't listen to Daddy, Buddy Holly," Lorelai cooed and scooped the kitten into her arms. "Of course we want you."

"Really?"

"Really." Lorelai kissed him, and he nearly dropped to the floor in sheer and utter relief. "Aces on the birthday gift, babe." Lorelai gave the kitten a small hug. "Now," she said to him, "Let's talk about you shredding the couch."

"I'll build him some of those scratching posts," Luke protested, following Lorelai and Buddy Holly into the living room. He may had spent the afternoon searching Google for different designs.

"No, I _want_ him to shred the couch." Lorelai plopped the kitten on the couch.

"I like our couch! You like our couch!"

"I had a fit of insanity when I agreed to the couch."

Luke opened his mouth to protest again, but Lorelai silenced him with a kiss. With a resigned sigh, he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and watched over her shoulder as their newest family member exercised its claws on the couch.


End file.
